27 May 2015

Award-winning architectural practice Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA has been selected to work with the Art Gallery of New South Wales to design the Sydney Modern Project, following an international architectural competition that commenced in September last year.

Art Gallery of New South Wales Director Dr Michael Brand said the international jury unanimously selected SANAA, an architectural firm based in Tokyo, Japan, founded twenty years ago by internationally renowned and highly respected architects – Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. SANAA’s body of work includes art museums in Japan, France and the United States.

In 2010 Sejima and Nishizawa were awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture’s highest honour. Of Sejima and Nishizawa the Pritzker Prize jury said, “The architects hold a vision of a building as a seamless whole, where the physical presence retreats and forms a sensuous background for people, objects, activities and landscapes.”

Dr Brand said SANAA has vision, expertise and a passion for art and architecture and that the Gallery was looking forward to working collaboratively with SANAA to deliver an exceptional design for the Gallery’s ambitious and transformative project.

“The SANAA concept is at once subtle and spectacular in its design. It responds to and respects the extraordinary beauty of the competition site through a series of pavilions that reach out to the Domain, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney Harbour and Woolloomooloo.

For further information on the Sydney Modern Project:
artgallery.nsw.gov.au/sydney-modern-project